Optima Batteries - safe to buy yet?

this has been a pretty interesting and informative thread. thanks to the Optima Guy for stepping in too. i've had 4 red tops in various vehicles over the last 5 or so years. all of them have been switched from vehicle to vehicle as needed, and two of them were pretty deeply discharged several times. they all survived just fine and afaik are still out powering vehicles. i've had one single optima die on me, it had a dead cell, just pooped itself with no warning on a very hot day last year, it was one damn week out of warranty. oh well...
 
stewie said:
ok, so what is the proper way to charge an optima? (dont have one so i dont have a clue).
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Hi stewie, under normal circumstances, you can charge an Optima just like a regular lead-acid battery. For regular charging, we recommend 10 amps max, 13.8-15 volts. For float charging, we recommend 1 amp max, 13.2-13.8 volts. The link provided for parallel charging is only needed for deeply-discharged batteries. This video explains some basics on battery charging- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkAr1Uj2EOg

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.facebook.com/optimabatteries
 
winkosmosis said:
I think the best option is just to avoid them and go with DieHard Platinum (made by Odyssey)
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I needed a new battery a few years ago and went with a die hard, not platinum but not the low end model. I had problems and took it to a local parts store to test it and they said it tested bad. I take it to sears they test it and say it's fine. I explain that it won't hold a charge over night. The person goes on to tell me that the problem is with my car not the battery and the parts place that tested it did it wrong. Sears finally concedes to slow charge it for me at least and send me on my way.

Get the fresh charged battery home and the car fires right up and I go for a nice long drive. It sits over night and has no juice at all again. I took the battery to like 3 different places to have it tested all say it's bad. I go back to sears and they test it again and say it's 100% good battery and charge it again and send me home with it for a repeat of before.

They refused to warranty it for a replacement even though it was in the replacement time period. All they offered was a pro-rated discount on a new battery. After all the poor service I am not about to spend more money with them. The die hard battery is sitting in my garage doing nothing still to this day. Part of me wants to think it's a good battery lol but magically the battery I bought from walmart and put in my car works fine. How can the car only manage to kill the die hard and not the other battery....
 
I have the DIehard Platinum (Odyssey) in my XJ. No problems as of yet. It's made a few hard pulls on the winch and held up good. I did get one slightly bigger than stock and thusly had to trim the tray a little. Eventually I will make up a little metal tray that fits it right.
 
iwannadie said:
I needed a new battery a few years ago and went with a die hard, not platinum but not the low end model. I had problems and took it to a local parts store to test it and they said it tested bad. I take it to sears they test it and say it's fine. I explain that it won't hold a charge over night. The person goes on to tell me that the problem is with my car not the battery and the parts place that tested it did it wrong. Sears finally concedes to slow charge it for me at least and send me on my way.

Get the fresh charged battery home and the car fires right up and I go for a nice long drive. It sits over night and has no juice at all again. I took the battery to like 3 different places to have it tested all say it's bad. I go back to sears and they test it again and say it's 100% good battery and charge it again and send me home with it for a repeat of before.

They refused to warranty it for a replacement even though it was in the replacement time period. All they offered was a pro-rated discount on a new battery. After all the poor service I am not about to spend more money with them. The die hard battery is sitting in my garage doing nothing still to this day. Part of me wants to think it's a good battery lol but magically the battery I bought from walmart and put in my car works fine. How can the car only manage to kill the die hard and not the other battery....
Click to expand...

I have never had a problem with sears. I've had several diehards and the only thing I had a problem with was a battery that would not take a charge a month after I bought it. Took it back and they replaced with no further no questions asked.

However, Local sears didn't carry what I wanted and neither did pepboys last night. Needed a battery ASAP so now I have a new optima yellow top from pepboys. I hate buying from them, but couldn't much help it.
 
wacho4 said:
I have never had a problem with sears. I've had several diehards and the only thing I had a problem with was a battery that would not take a charge a month after I bought it. Took it back and they replaced with no further no questions asked.

However, Local sears didn't carry what I wanted and neither did pepboys last night. Needed a battery ASAP so now I have a new optima yellow top from pepboys. I hate buying from them, but couldn't much help it.
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I spend a lot of money at sears and never had a problem with anything in the store. In fact I just took a broken socket up to the store today, the guy didn't even glance down to see where it had cracked. Just said no problem heres your new one. I went to sears for my battery because of all the good experience I have had with them.

The secondary auto parts place though I had the issue I mentioned. Clearly the battery was dead and not holding a charge. They refused any attempt to replace it and blamed my car which oddly enough had no problem with the new battery.

I ended up buying from walmart because it's pretty much self serve and no cashier is going to try and tell me my alternator is killing my brand new battery. The parts counter wannabe know-it-alls at sears seemed positive they diagnosed my problem without ever seeing the vehicle. Plus walmart is 24/7 and the stores miles apart on every corner almost.
 
Boatwrench said:
Do they make one with both side terminals and top posts? I couldn't tell from the web links.
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Just a quick way to know if a battery is a dual terminal is to look for two group sizes listed together.

34/78, 75/86, or it will have a DT after the group dize (dual terminal).

A group 34 is a top post battery and the 78 is a side post. Likewise a 75 is a side post and a 86 is a top.

Hope this helps a little.
 
Two days ago i stopped in a local upull for a headlight switch as my Autozone replacement is failing, they had an Optima Yellowtop with a sticker on it of 2/06 on the core shelf. I could have it for $10... whats the chance this can be revived?

I have a charger with a 2amp selection. This should suffice for a slow charge as the Optima directions call for? Wondering if i can bring it back and use it on my trailer for the Fridge.
 
OverlandXJ said:
Two days ago i stopped in a local upull for a headlight switch as my Autozone replacement is failing, they had an Optima Yellowtop with a sticker on it of 2/06 on the core shelf. I could have it for $10... whats the chance this can be revived?

I have a charger with a 2amp selection. This should suffice for a slow charge as the Optima directions call for? Wondering if i can bring it back and use it on my trailer for the Fridge.
Click to expand...
I'd buy it. Even if it doesn't hold the chage you're only out $10.
 
ehall said:
somebody needs to talk to Autozone cause they are only giving 36 mo replacement on new Red Top and 12 or 24 replacement on Yellow Top --
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Just got mine today and it comes with a 3 year free replacement warranty and a 6 year pro rated warranty.

When I bought the XJ it had a yellow top in it and took a shit about a year later (dont know how long its been in their). So I didnt want to spend the $200 bucks up front, so I went with the Autozone, duralast for about $80. And 9 months later (today) I returned the duralast for full refund and got another yellow top. I really never had any problems with them, so I just got another cause I had the means for one.
 
OverlandXJ said:
Two days ago i stopped in a local upull for a headlight switch as my Autozone replacement is failing, they had an Optima Yellowtop with a sticker on it of 2/06 on the core shelf. I could have it for $10... whats the chance this can be revived?

I have a charger with a 2amp selection. This should suffice for a slow charge as the Optima directions call for? Wondering if i can bring it back and use it on my trailer for the Fridge.
Click to expand...

Might be worth a try. There is a method using two batteries to charge those, and I think they recommend 10 amps--check the Optima website, I believe all the info is posted there.
 
I have a mexican made yellow top i baught 1.5 years ago. I've drained it twice because i have seveere parasitic loss in my bmw, so not optimas fault and it charged back up fine. I took it to the rubicon and left my radio on all night two nights in a row and it started right up fine in the morning. Thing's been great.
 
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